I started by washing the parts with soap and water, then removing all the parts from the trees, cleaning up the flash and sanded any seams smooth. Be careful as you cut the parts from the trees because they are very fine and will break easily if you get careless. After test fitting as many parts as I could at this stage, I painted the interior and engine. Most of the German WWI A/C had all wood fuselages, except for Fokker who preferred tube steel construction. To simulate this I paint all the parts that were wood a very light tan, then with oil paints that I thin with linseed oil, tap on a very light amount of paint in V shaped patterns or in diagonals. (See the above and below images) Now you just streak it with a stiff bristle brush. I use three colors, raw umber, burnt sienna and yellow ochre and blend and layer as I like, you may want to try this on some scrap Styrene or an old model. At the very least let the parts dry over night before you handle them, oils take a little while to dry or cure. On the other hand there is some evidence that Pfalz painted its aircraft interiors light blue or light gray. So if you don’t want to do the wood, you may want to opt for the painted interior.

The engines went together quite nicely and look great, one of the strengths of these RODEN and TOKO kits are the engines.

Well let’s put the fuselages together and see if we can find some problems. I found that the cockpit fit was good and with a little work you could build an excellent interior, I just added seatbelts made from strips of aluminum foil that I painted off white.

The engine has four centering pins that are the engine mounts and these fit in the upper cowling of the fuselage. This cowling is then glued to the fuselage to make a D.III or a D.IIIa. These pins take a little fitting to hold the engine. Also I found that the two bumps on the carburetor needed to be removed so the engine would fit properly. Other wise the engine went in great. I fit the wings and glued them to the fuselage assembly and used a little green putty to blend this joint.

The hardest thing that you will need to do is open up the slot in the rear fuselage for the horizontal stabilizer. The slot needs to be widened and in the case of the D.IIIa lengthened to accommodate the larger stabilizer.

Now a little bit of putty, then some sanding and we start to make all the rigging holes. I use 2lbs fishing line that I color black or dark gray. I find that this is the fastest and strongest way to rig. I also don’t paint the fishing line as the paint has a tendency to get scraped off so I use markers of the waterproof variety. I try to drill holes that are just about the same size as the thread I will use. If more than one thread will go through the same hole, I just increase the size of the hole accordingly.

Lastly I scribed all the access panels that may have been damaged during the smoothing process, or make new details from paper, aluminum foil or something.

After painting I applied all except the under wing decals. I save them until last so they don’t get in the way while I rig. Final assembly and rigging went well. I find it amazing how rigging makes the kit stronger and even more ridged, I guess that is why they rigged the real ones.

As you can see from the pictures, I super glue the rigging to the upper wing and thread it through the bottom wing. I use fishing weights (the clamp on variety) to tension the lines and use a drop of glue to fix the line in place. After a second you can cut and make the line flush with the wing. Now a little touch up paint and the under wing decals and viola, you have an aesthetically pleasing configuration of rigging lines.

Although the kit came with the parts, I decided to make the water pipes that go from the radiator to the engine out of brass wire. I bent them with old pliers then painted them silver and glued them in place with super glue. The kits water pipes were made out of injection molded plastic and looked a bit thick to me.

I decided to build the personal aircraft of three of the more famous Pfalz Drivers. All won the coveted Pour le Merite (Blue Max). (Not to be confused with a certain Nitro Funny Car, Ed)

First is Leutnent der Reserve Werner Voss (48 victories), who flew Pfalz D.III 1370/17 as Stafflfuhrer of Jasta 10 from the end of July 1917 to his death in September 1917. This aircraft has a very interesting history, as it was not only Voss’s personal A/C but was captured in December 1917 and evaluated by the British. At the time of its capture the nose and struts were painted yellow and the tail was painted green. Voss was killed while fighting SE5s of No. 56 Squadron in his Fokker Dr.I (Dr.I 103/17) on 23 September 1917. One of the first to learn the hard way that while the Dr.I could out turn all other aircraft, it was slow and could not run from an enemy, not even in a dive.

Second is Leutnent Carl Degelow (30 victories), who flew a black Pfalz with his distinctive leaping silver stag insignia. After WWI he fought against the communists in the Post-war revolution that swept over Germany. When WWII broke out he joined the Luftwaffa as a Major and survived that war. He died in Hamburg Germany on 9 November 1970.

Third is Hauptmann Rudolf Berthold (44 victories), who flew a brightly colored Blue and Red Pfalz that was painted to look like a Prussian dress uniform. Berthold liked Pfalz aircraft and flew Pfalz aircraft from the E.IV to the D.IIIa. He survived the war and also fought in the post-war revolution. Rioters in Harburg on the Elbe killed him on 15 March 1920. It is said that after a beating he was strangled with the ribbon from his Pour le Merite (Blue Max). On his head stone is the inscription "Honored by his enemies-slain by his German brethren."

The kits supplied all the decals that I used. The only thing that had to be made was the work numbers for Werner Voss’s aircraft and I made them by modifying the decals provided by the kit.

I started out building four kits, three Roden and one MAC. However I lost interest in the MAC kit and finished the three Roden kits. Who knows, maybe some time later I will finish the MAC kit. They are both good kits I just liked the Roden kits better. You may prefer the MAC offering.